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Newly sworn-in Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield made a significant addition to his staff this week, hiring Portland lawyer Steve Berman as special counsel.
Before establishing his own firm last year, Berman practiced for more than 20 years at Stoll Berne, one of the city’s top litigation firms. There, Berman handled complex business and securities cases, as well as consumer law.
But he is perhaps best known as a top elections lawyer.
In 2008, Berman left Stoll Berne to serve as research director of Defend Oregon and then served as in-house counsel for Our Oregon, the union-backed group that dominated ballot measure contests for many years. After returning to Stoll Berne in 2010, he regularly represented unions and other progressive groups on elections matters. He was to go-to lawyer in the arcane but vitally important process of shaping and often challenging ballot measure titles and texts. (Coincidentally, one of the few other lawyers who regularly appeared in such matters, Steve Elzinga, recently moved from private practice to serving as in-house counsel for Lane County.)
Rayfield’s decision to hire Berman comes at a time when the AG and all of Oregon’s statewide elected officials are positioning themselves to deal with the incoming Trump administration, which is likely to be at odds with Oregon in a variety of areas. It’s not lost on Salem insiders that having a top elections official on staff—particularly one with a long association with Oregon’s public employee unions—could help Rayfield, 45, if he ever seeks higher office.
But in the meantime, Rayfield says his new special counsel will focus on nuts-and-bolts issues—what Rayfield’s office is calling “the working families’ agenda.”
That will include a new labor enforcement team within DOJ to protect workers and an enhanced focus on consumer protection, which the office says will involve focusing on “predatory lenders, scam artists, identity theft, credit fraud, and abusive practices by insurance companies,“ among other issues.
“Protecting everyday consumers and supporting working families are two of the most urgent priorities for my administration,” Rayfield said. “I am confident that Steve will bring the leadership and expertise we need to expand and improve the state’s efforts to make sure all Oregonians are treated legally and fairly.”
This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the state of Oregon. OJP seeks to inform, engage, and empower Oregonians with investigative and watchdog reporting that makes a significant impact at the state and local levels. Its stories appear in partner newspapers across the state. Learn more at oregonjournalismproject.org.